The problem with our party over the last 10-20 years or so (IMO)

[FLAprogressive]

the leadership is too interested in trying to make 100% of the country happy (as opposed to 50% + 1 which is all we need) and therefore we kowtow to Republicans (under the guise of "bipartisanship")....putting crappy bills through that no one likes in a lame attempt to make a few Republicans happy.

Discuss.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Reps and conservative Dems rule Washington. Majority in Congress from '94-'06.

Majority in the Senate through the '90s to '06.

[FLAprogressive]

3. you could say that there's still an effective conservative working majority.....

[Captain Hilts]

4. Yes. And, who knows, Obama might have been hanging with Jim Cooper and Sam Nunn...

because he agrees with them. Hard to say and too soon to say.

[leftstreet]

2. The 'leadership' in both parties is the same

They don't give a shit about us, the 'crappy' bills they pass don't have any effect on them, and all they really care about is keeping their lucrative jobs.

[WilliamPitt]

5. The problem happened 40 years ago, imho

The GOP had, until very recently, a lot of "wise old men" to advise them on policy, politics and tactics. Bush Sr., Nixon, Kissinger, Bennett...bastards one and all, but they were/are also some of the sharpest political knives in the drawer. Nixon and Kissinger were two of the most awesome political mechanics we've ever seen, and having people like that to advise your party is indispensible.

The Democratic Party could have had John Kennedy as one of our wise old men, but he got his head blown off in the back seat of his car in Texas. We could have had Robert Kennedy, but he got his head blown off in a hotel kitchen in California. We could have had Martin Luther King, Jr., but he got his throat shot out on a hotel balcony in Memphis. We could have had Medgar Evers, but he got shot in the back in his own Mississippi driveway. We could have had Malcolm X, but he got riddled on a stage in New York.

Our braintrust, or wise old men, all died young. Their absence created a wisdom/knowledge vaccuum that still affects us to this day.

The GOP old-school brain trusters may have all been bastards, but they knew their shit, and helped a minority party dominate politics for a long time. The fact that these wise old GOP men have nearly all passed on these last few years is a good piece of the reason why the GOP suddenly can't get out of its own way politically anymore. They can't make those phone calls to those old-timers to get good tactical advice anymore.

We lost our wise old men before any of them got old. We have suffered for their absence.

MHO.